Art Industry News: MoMA PS1 Removed an Artist’s Works From Display After He Called on the Public to Destroy Them + Other Stories

Art Industry News is a daily digest of the most
consequential developments coming out of the art world and art
market. Here’s what you need to know on this Tuesday, March
3.

NEED-TO-READ

Dominican Artists Stage a ‘Vigil for Democracy’ –
An all-female group of Dominican
artists helped organize a protest in New York after municipal
elections were suspended in
the Dominican Republic last month due to alleged technical failures
with an electronic voting system. Around 70 protesters gathered near the embassy
of the Dominican Republic in Times Square last week to demand
electoral transparency. As part of the demonstration, protestors
formed a circle around red, white, and blue candles and
flowers. (Hyperallergic)

Damien Hirst Has a Millionaire-Dollar Moan – The artist unburdens himself in an interview
with Idler magazine, complaining about the problems
of his rock-star lifestyle. Even after money rushed in, cashflow
became an issue, and Hirst says he had to raise money to pay his
army of assistants by selling works from his collection.
“You start by thinking you’ll get
one assistant, and before you know it you’ve got biographers, fire
eaters, jugglers, fucking minstrels, and lyre players all wandering
around. They’re all saying they aren’t being paid enough and they
all need assistants.” (In 2018, Hirst let go of 50 employees to
“focus on his art.”) (Idler)

MoMA PS1 Removes an Artist’s Work – MoMA PS1 thwarted a
call by the artist Ali Yass
for the public to destroy his works by removing them from public
display. The Berlin-based artist, who is included in the
museum’s controversial
exhibition about the Gulf wars, says the
institution stifled his voice. But the museum sees it
differently. “There are no circumstances under which MoMA PS1
would accept the destruction of artworks or aggression towards our
staff or visitors,” a spokesperson said. Yass
was unable to travel to
New York to see the show because of the US travel
ban. (ARTnews)

ART MARKET

A Dealer Says Mega Galleries Should ‘Foot the Bill’ for
Smaller Ones –  Candice
Madey, who closed her Lower East Side gallery, On Stellar Rays, in
2017, to shift her business into a more “nimble” one, has some
modest proposals. Among them is the suggestion that mega-galleries
should consider making “investments” in gallery-share business
models for their smaller competitors in New York, where real estate
costs are a killer. The
WeWork-like concept for dealers would allow them to
share exhibition,
storage, and meeting spaces that could be rented for a reasonable
fee. (ARTnews)

TEFAF Maastricht Goes Ahead – The organizers of the fine art and antiques
fair in the Dutch city of Maastricht are going ahead this week amid
the coronavirus crisis. As of Tuesday, three dealers had pulled
out, and the 208 remaining exhibitors expected to see fewer older
collectors and smaller museum groups from the US. (The Art Newspaper)

Bernard Arnault Wants to Buy the Ritz – The Billionaire French art collector is in the
running to buy the Ritz Hotel in London. The head of the LVMH group
is reported to be competing with the Qatari royal family and a
Saudi Arabian consortium for the luxury hotel, which has a nearly
$9 million price tag. (Times)

COMINGS & GOINGS

Jewish History Museum Files for Bankruptcy – Philadelphia’s National Museum of American
Jewish History, which was founded in 1976, has filed for
bankruptcy. The institution, racked by $30 million in unpaid debt
taken on in 2008 to fund its new building, will stay open while it is reorganized,
and has promised not to layoff staff. (CNN)

German Painter Peter Dreher Dies at 87 – The German postwar painter Peter Dreher died on
February 18, aged 87. Dreher was best known for his observational
painting series depicting a solitary empty glass. (ARTnews)

Jay McKean Fisher Leaves the Baltimore Museum of Art –
The longstanding curator at the BMA
is retiring on March 31 after 45 years at the institution. Fisher
will be named the institution’s emeritus senior curator for prints,
drawings, and photographs as of April 1. (Press release)

FOR ART’S SAKE

Iggy Pop and Maurizio Cattelan Make a Record –
Iggy Pop is releasing a
limited-edition vinyl album titled FREE, which features
cover art by Maurizio Cattelan. Both artists will sign copies of
the limited 340 edition run at Perrotin in New York on Saturday,
March 7. The record includes two new tracks, an a capella version
of Brahms’s “Lullaby,” and
an ode to Iggy Pop’s dead dog, “Epistle to Tromba.” (Press release)

Harvey Weinstein’s Severed Head Shows Up in New York –
The New York street artist SacSix
has painted a mural in the East Village depicting the comedian
Kathy Griffin holding up the severed head of the convicted rapist
and former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. The painting was
inspired by a highly controversial 2017 photoshoot in which Griffin
held up the bloody head of Donald Trump. (Patch)

The post Art Industry News: MoMA PS1 Removed an Artist’s
Works From Display After He Called on the Public to Destroy Them +
Other Stories appeared first on artnet News.